They Live - Limited Edition Steelbook 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray [4K UHD]

Released in November of 1988, director John Carpenter's They Live may be the film of its generation. Well, if it's not then it's pretty close. John Carpenter is mostly known for the box office smash hit Halloween (1978) and as great as that film is (it's my favorite film), They Live is proof that the horror master had more to offer, along with a lot of other gems like Escape From New York (1981), The Thing (1982), Big Trouble In Little China (1986), In The Mouth Of Madness (1995), Escape From L.A. (1996) and Vampires (1998), They Live ranks on the list of his best films. What makes Carpenter so unique is that he really understood where Hollywood was heading during the late 70s and most of the 80s and for a short period of time he got his taste of Hollywood. He then realized that it simply only cares about making money and he spent the rest of his career as a true independent, not following any rules and making movies the way that he wanted to. Carpenter was riding on the success of Halloween, which was in its day the highest grossing independent film ever made. Escape From New York was another hit movie and by this time he was getting major studio offerings. He then directed his first big studio picture The Thing. This film was expected to be a commercial hit but unfortunately, the film was a disaster and was even considered one of the most hated films by critics and audiences alike. Although The Thing has found a cult audience over the years, it was the film that launched a series of commercial failures from the director. Carpenter was feeling frustrated with the way the studio system was heading so he decided to make a film that expressed this which is where They Live comes in. This film may be one of the bravest movies in its day. During the 1980s, we were being told to do nothing but consume. This film is a study of the world being corrupt by the media and how it tells us to simply not care and just make tons of money. The middle class are portrayed as villains in the film and that being rich and successful is the only way to be happy while poor working class people are being treated as useless. We all believe that fame and fortune is what makes us somebody but Carpenter wasn't about to become a sell out and instead he dealt with his frustration by making this film and when you look at it now you can't help but think what an honest direction that was to go in. But this movie isn't just for deep thinkers, it is also a kick ass sci-fi action movie and it's a lot of fun too. Sure, the movie is goofy at times and very B movie material but to me that's a positive aspect, I think that was the perfect way to portray the story. I would put this movie up there with A Clockwork Orange (1971) even, as pretentious as that sounds.

Fast shipping love these retro movies from the '80s that are now 4K great visual and audio soundtracks from it

Great movie

Great cult classic sic-fi film. I think this film was ahead of its time, but also timeless in many ways. The overarching plot, themes, undertones, and overtones all match up with things people are just beginning to piece together now, in fragments. At the same time, there are very memorable segues containing action and very classic one-liners that have been paid homage to in many TV shows and Hollywood films ever since, but you probably didn't realize they came from this film. With such a low budget, they had to be very creative, and you would never guess this from the visual/AV production, which looks as good as anything big budget. But through that creativity a lot of novel ideas appeared in this film before their times. A film, "Branded", which fell through the cracks and received poor reviews, did similar things, nearly 25 years later. And yet, this film was on average highly praised by critics. Like most great films, it's best watched if you don't watch trailers, don't read about it on the internet, and don't spoil it for yourself; just go wit the flow. And a great flow it has. In some ways, perhaps in another universe, you can easily see from his sci-fi work that Carpenter would have been a top notch director for big budget films of the time, like Terminator 2, etc; but he stuck to what he wanted to do and the messages he wanted to get across. One other analogy that comes to mind when watching this film, not so much in content or plot, but conceptually, is Idiocracy. If you enjoyed that film, you will probably dig this a lot. Idiocracy made such great social commentary that it was well finished, and a great film, but ultimately the studio dropped all marketing money and efforts, because they feared alienating their core (masses) base of TV viewers. In other words, they thought the film was too intelligent to show. You get that feeling here; the film did well (made a profit), got great reviews, etc, but is scarcely heard of. Definitely worth a watch if you are a sci-fi fan. Some of the best stuff came out of the very late 80s going into the big progressive world of the 90s (especially for sci-fi; Star Trek: TNG, anyone?); a time which is only really paralleled in recent history by the 60s. This film may have fallen through the cracks, but thankfully, Amazon has it available in its catalogue for rental!

Okay, definitely a B rated 80s movie. The acting is awful. However, the message is good. Worth a watch.

Good movie for it’s time.

What a classic, great movie, no problems

La imagen y su calida es buena, llegó en buen estado y rápido

CONSUME OBEY NO INDEPENDENT THOUGHT

日本版ブルーレイの特典内容があまり良くないと思っていたので今までパイオニア版DVDとWOWOWで放送された物で我慢していましたが今回このアメリカ版ブルーレイセットを購入しました。特典映像は2012年発売のアメリカ版ブルーレイとほぼ同じ様ですが音響が7.1サラウンド化されてます。UHDがドルビーアトモスで通常ブルーレイはDTSマスターオ－ディオ7.1サラウンドと言う商品アナウンスでしたが再生したら通常ブルーレイもドルビーアトモスでした！前作「パラダイム」の商品よりは低音の響きは控えめな印象ですが少し高額な日本版ブルーレイセットよりこちらのアメリカ版を選んで良かったです。だけど海外版は商品の表示間違いがたまにありますよね。予めお断りしておきますが、この商品には日本語字幕はありません。私の様なマニアの方にお勧めします！

Carpenter flingue encore une fois la société et les USA en particulier. Ici il s'en prend aux médias, à la police et aux dirigeants, présentés ici comme de vils extra terretres.. Veritable plaidoyer sur la liberté de pensée sous couvert de science fiction serie B il nous livre encore une oeuvre majeure. Avec peu de moyens il parvient à realiser un film personnel et jamais ridicule. Honnêtement interprété par un Roddy Piper ( ici clone de Kurt Russel), avec une narration des plus fluides, et dotées de scènes on ne peut plus ironiques, Carpenter retrouve sa verve de '' New York 1997''. Le final à ce titre est une très grande réussite. A la fois drôle et dramatique il constitue le point culminant du film. Toujours très fin dans son propos en voilà un Carpenter qu'il faut redécouvrir. Sans vf ni sous titres mais avec sous-titres anglais pouvant aider les anglophones les plus lambdas, le bluray est superbe avec un piqué terrible. L'image sans coulure ni salissure est du plus bel effet. Bonus sympas avec Making of et interview de Carpenter. Attention Zone A.